Dena Davidson [00:00:00]:
Welcome to the Bible Study Podcast. We are in our Not Without series. So basically, Bayside as a whole, all of our different campuses, we are in a campaign called Next, all about the next chapter that God wants to write for our church and, and the impact that he is wanting us to have as a church on the world. So it's been incredibly faith-building. Hopefully you've been loving diving into this series. And I am joined today by, 'cause I thought I'd make it hard on myself, Jason And Jason. That's how that worked out. Yes.
Dena Davidson [00:00:30]:
So we've got Jason Dixon. And tell us a little bit about what you do at Bayside.
Jason Dixon [00:00:33]:
Yeah, one of the pastors around here, chief of staff over at Blue Oaks and Adventure. So I get to hang out with both of those staff and have a lot of fun.
Dena Davidson [00:00:40]:
So incredible. Love it. And Jason Kane.
Jason Caine [00:00:43]:
I'm Jason Kane, lead pastor over at Bayside Blue Oaks. Glad to be back on the pod.
Dena Davidson [00:00:47]:
Yes, that's right. We've had Jason and Jason but never together, so it's going to be a real—
Jason Caine [00:00:51]:
so we just going to go by last name.
Jason Dixon [00:00:53]:
Like an athletic—
Dena Davidson [00:00:53]:
Kane and Dixon.
Jason Dixon [00:00:54]:
Last name.
Dena Davidson [00:00:55]:
And if I ever just say Jason, you make it up like you always do.
Jason Caine [00:00:58]:
Figure it out.
Dena Davidson [00:00:58]:
All right. Love it. All right, we are in 1 Chronicles chapter 29. And to set the stage for this chapter, it's an incredible passage. So basically David is at the end of his leadership journey. So God has done incredible things. He's literally slain giants. He's ruled the kingdom, won back his kingdom, done all of these great things.
Dena Davidson [00:01:18]:
But he sees that his chapter is coming to a close. And God has told him, "Hey, you are not the one to build my temple," which I love that. Like David had all this ambition to do a great thing for God, but God put his hand on his forehead and was like, "Yeah, actually slow down. You're not the one." But still David wanted to do something to contribute to this temple that God had said, "Your son is going to build." So we see David gathering all of the Israelites together, and he gives this speech. David the king, picking up in verse 1, chapter 29. David the king said to all the assembly, Solomon my son, whom alone God has chosen, is young and inexperienced, and the work is great, for the palace will not be for man but for the Lord God. So I have provided for the house of my God so far as I was able, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, and the bronze for the things of bronze. The iron for the things of iron, and the wood for the things of wood, besides great quantities of onyx and stones for setting, antimony, colored stones, all sorts of precious stones, and marble.
Dena Davidson [00:02:27]:
Moreover, in addition to all that I have provided for the Holy House, I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, and because of my devotion to the house of my God, I give it to the house of my God: 3,000 talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and 7,000 talents of refined silver, for the overlaying the walls of the house, and for all the work to be done by craftsmen, gold for the things of gold and silver for the things of silver. Who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself today to the Lord?' Then the leader of fathers' houses made their freewill offerings, as did also the leaders of the tribes, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the officers over the king's work. They gave for the service of the house of God 5,000 talents and 10,000 darics of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze, and 100,000 talents of iron. And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord in the care of Jehiel the Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced willingly because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly. All right, jumping in, first impressions of that passage. This is one of those Old Testament passages that I feel like just gives you a glimpse into what life was like in a way that maybe we don't get in the other passages.
Jason Caine [00:03:56]:
First of all, as you read this, you realize that boy David was paid. He clearly had accumulated some things over his lifetime in order to provide.
Dena Davidson [00:04:05]:
This is the shepherd to the king.
Jason Dixon [00:04:07]:
We would love for AC to end this one.
Jason Caine [00:04:09]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Jason Dixon [00:04:09]:
This would be great.
Jason Caine [00:04:10]:
I wish I'd, yeah. He did go from shepherd to king. And I think also it talks about there's a level of stewardship that you see here from David and that he gets to the end of his life and he has something to give and he wants to give to something that he's never going to see. So I think there's a bit of legacy that we see here with David as well. He knew, while I won't get to build the temple, I can still partake in contributing so something great comes When I'm dead.
Jason Dixon [00:04:38]:
Yeah, I think that's big. And to go along with that, Kane, that the selflessness is so big. Anytime I do premarital counseling with people, I always tell them, if you want to know how selfish you are, get married. You'll find out very quickly. And I tell them, hey, you have to wake up every morning and you have to choose someone else over yourself. And seeing how David started with this incredible, incredible life that he's lived, and then God goes, we're about to build the temple. But not you. And he says, I want to start.
Jason Caine [00:05:07]:
Yeah. Didn't get bitter.
Jason Dixon [00:05:08]:
No.
Jason Caine [00:05:08]:
Didn't say, all right, fine.
Dena Davidson [00:05:11]:
I'll keep my wealth.
Jason Dixon [00:05:12]:
Do your own thing.
Jason Caine [00:05:12]:
Solomon, go ahead. Do your thing.
Jason Dixon [00:05:14]:
And so I think, again, just to tag along with that, that is so, so powerful to see that.
Dena Davidson [00:05:19]:
That's a really powerful idea of his stewardship. Throughout the course of his life, he had gathered wealth, and that shows a level of the shepherd growing into his leadership capacity to not just take and then— this is the story of so many people. They get and they get, but they never have. They have nothing to give because they don't know how to faithfully steward resources.
Jason Caine [00:05:41]:
Yeah. I mean, scripture tells us a good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children. And you can only do that if you steward things well throughout your life. And while you're watching this, don't cut it off. We're talking about stewardship. You might be thinking, I'm 40, I'm 50, I'm 60. I haven't began to do that. That is okay.
Jason Caine [00:05:57]:
God has grace. And I think you can start from this moment. And you can become a steward today so that you do have something to give.
Jason Dixon [00:06:04]:
Yeah, absolutely.
Dena Davidson [00:06:05]:
That's amazing. I think all good stewardship begins with an accounting of what has God given me? And then it's a real theological tingle to know where our work ends and where God's work begins. But most of all, there's synergy. God works through us and God works in us. And so it's never like, Well, I just trust God to pay for my bills and I don't have to do anything. Like the way that God over and over again throughout history, throughout the Bible, the way that he chooses to work is through his people. So God had let David amass all of this wealth, and then David chose to partner with God to lay the future for the temple.
Jason Caine [00:06:49]:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Jason Dixon [00:06:50]:
And I'm going to actually skip down real quick. It starts in verse 10.
Dena Davidson [00:06:54]:
I will allow it.
Jason Dixon [00:06:55]:
Okay, thank you so much. Through 12. Because you see everything that just happened. And like you just said, Dina, the idea of who does this come from? God provided all of this. And after David had gone and then he had seen the leaders go and then he saw the people go, the first thing he does, he doesn't jump up and just tell everybody how amazing they are. Praise be to you, Lord. Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor and heaven and earth is all of these different things. The first thing he did was point to God.
Jason Dixon [00:07:25]:
Yeah. Like in the way that I led out of the abundance that God had given me, you did the same thing. But God, this is all because of you. So I thought that was a super powerful moment right after this happened.
Jason Caine [00:07:35]:
Yeah. I think as you're reading that portion of the scripture, I think something that just comes to mind is that sacrifice reveals how you feel about God. But I also think when God has revealed himself to you, you sacrifice. Yes. Those two things work in concert.— and I would hope that in all of our lives that we'd be willing to sacrifice because of how good God is. And David knew that there was purpose to the thing that he was given to. And ultimately he knew, he says it in verse 1, that we're doing this not for man, but we're doing this for God. And so the reason he was willing to sacrifice is because he saw that the work wasn't just for man, but this was for God and what God was going to do in the future.
Dena Davidson [00:08:13]:
Yeah, absolutely. So good. Our theme this week is Not Without Sacrifice. We're talking about that concept of sacrifice. I just wanna do like a little bit of a pause on the word sacrifice because I think often we take it for granted that people understand what we mean by that word sacrifice. I've been working on the children's placemats that we've been handing out to all of our families.
Jason Dixon [00:08:35]:
Those are great, by the way. Thank you. Make sure you get those.
Dena Davidson [00:08:37]:
Appreciate it. Those are fantastic. But I've had to sit with each placemat and think about, okay, well, how am I gonna explain this to my 4-year-old? Right? Like, what does it mean to sacrifice?
Jason Caine [00:08:46]:
And that's a hard task, right? To explain something to four?
Dena Davidson [00:08:50]:
In the middle of them asking when can they have their cookie, he announced it.
Jason Dixon [00:08:52]:
They're like, "What are we killing?" Yes. "What do you mean?" Yes.
Dena Davidson [00:08:56]:
So, I think it would be helpful just to start like, all right, think about one of the early scenes of sacrifice in the Bible. We see Cain and Abel sacrifice. We talked about it a couple weeks ago on the podcast with Wesley. But there is this idea that just because you give something to God, He's not just gonna pat you on the shoulder and be like, "Oh, thanks, Jason. Thanks for giving me something. That's so amazing of you." Like, you know, he's not talking to a 4-year-old who is just giving something out of the goodness of his heart. Like, God gets us. God knows that our hearts are complex and they're oriented towards sin and to ourselves.
Dena Davidson [00:09:36]:
And so one of the reasons that God requests sacrifice, or not requests, demands sacrifice, is because it's an opportunity for the human heart to show its allegiance. Is like, it's an actual test of what is inside of our heart, right? So with Cain and Abel, like, Abel's sacrifice was acceptable to God, and Cain's sacrifice was not. And you can go and read about why in Genesis 4. But essentially, I think that's the first thing that we have to understand, that sacrifice is not because God needs something, right? Like, God, the omnipotent God of the universe, is not up in heaven saying like, "Man, I just really need Dixon to contribute," right? Like, "The whole kingdom's gonna fall apart." Like, "I just really need David to give up his gold, otherwise that temple's just not gonna happen," right? Like, he's the God that spun the universe into existence through his own words. There is no lack in God. Sacrifice is an opportunity. It's a test, and it's an opportunity for us to show our allegiance. And I think when you think about it, that way, that this is like a chapter where they got it right.
Jason Dixon [00:10:47]:
Right?
Dena Davidson [00:10:47]:
I mean, even fast forward, you remember when the Israelites are coming out of Egypt and Moses has gone up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments from God. And Moses has left them alone for like 5 seconds. And what are they doing? Right? They're freaking out. Like, where is God? We've been abandoned. And what do they do? They sacrifice. They— Aaron's like, "I don't— okay, give me your gold," right? So everyone sacrifices, they take it, they give it to Aaron, he melts it down, and he forms an idol, a calf that they all worship. It was a sacrifice, but it was a wrongful sacrifice. So on the one hand, sacrifice is a test, but it's also really important that the object of our sacrifice is correct.
Dena Davidson [00:11:33]:
Talk to me about that. Like, how can we make wrongful sacrifices? 'Cause not all sacrifice is right if it's for the wrong thing.
Jason Caine [00:11:40]:
How mad can I make people on this podcast?
Dena Davidson [00:11:42]:
You can make people so mad. Curt's not here this week, so this is just Deena bearing the responsibility.
Jason Caine [00:11:47]:
All right. So, as soon as you started talking about we can sacrifice for the wrong things, I first of all thought about kids, and that we can sacrifice for our kids to be involved in all of these sports, and it takes up the weekend, and they're not going to the Super Bowl, they're not going to the NBA. And we give up all of these things so that our children can have an experience while missing the main thing, which is that they should have a relationship with God. Now, if your kids are involved in youth sports, there's no need to leave a comment or anything like that, but ask yourself a question. Am I sacrificing my time, my money, my attention for something that has lasting value? Now, people go on trips with their kids all the time and you're able to spend time with them That time is valuable in the car with the kids, that's great. But at the same time, is that sacrifice worth it? Are you giving that same level of time to the things of the kingdom of God that matter? So, that's the first thing that came to mind.
Dena Davidson [00:12:45]:
I think a litmus test for your family culture is— 'cause every family has a culture, right? Like, what is our family sacrifice for? Like, what do we give our time? What do we give our money? What do we give our affection and attention to? And just asking your kids, 'cause kids are so honest, right? Like, the younger they are, the more honest they are. So, asking them like—
Jason Caine [00:13:06]:
They get 15, they're pretty honest too. Yeah? Yeah, yeah. Very much so.
Dena Davidson [00:13:09]:
Keep looking forward to it.
Jason Caine [00:13:10]:
Very much so. My daughter told me I stank the other day.
Dena Davidson [00:13:12]:
Oh, that's something.
Jason Caine [00:13:12]:
I had just got out the shower. No, I don't know. She's like, "This is your natural odor. I don't like it." I was like, "Okay." Oh my God. Well, anyway. Let's keep those thoughts inside. So, like, maybe the other one for church leaders, I think something that can happen is, You can sacrifice your own family to save everybody else's family. And I think my dad, when was in ministry growing up, and he never did that for me.
Jason Caine [00:13:34]:
And this is a principle that I've had in my own life. Like, I'm not going to sacrifice my own family to save everybody else's. What type of sense would that make?
Jason Dixon [00:13:41]:
Yes, absolutely. I even know when I first got here, there was a Micah— speaking of sports, so we're bad parents, gang. Micah had a soccer tournament. I didn't want to tell you. Southern California. We did it publicly against to the world. But I remember I had just gotten here and things were busy and I mean, there was a lot of things going on and I was like, oh man, I mean, I can send them down there, it's fine. And I remember specifically talking to some leadership here and they're like, go with your family.
Jason Dixon [00:14:11]:
Go with your family. All of this will be fine. Go with your family. Hey, don't even worry about ants. I mean, it was amazing to see that. So I think the family's the big piece, especially in ministry. If you're in ministry out there, your family will get sacrificed very quickly. Because there's always something to say yes to.
Jason Dixon [00:14:28]:
There's always something to say yes to.
Dena Davidson [00:14:29]:
Oh yeah, absolutely. I had a mentor early on say, "Every yes is a no and every no is a yes. So make sure you're saying the right yeses, say the right no." Because if you're always saying yes to ministry, then that's a lot of nos to your family. Conversely, if you're always saying yes to your family, that's a lot of nos to being part of the body of Christ. So got to say the right yeses. There's a balance. There's a balance. Exactly.
Dena Davidson [00:14:50]:
Okay, I love it. So picking back up with the theme of sacrifice, we gotta make sure that our sacrifice, that we're willing to have God test us and approve our sacrifice. It's an opportunity for our heart to be reoriented towards him. Gotta make sure that our actual sacrifice, like the object of our sacrifice, is correct. But I have a question for you. Is it sacrifice if it's not costly? No. Okay, that was easy. All right, talk to me about that.
Jason Caine [00:15:19]:
I mean, I think by definition, in order for something to be a sacrifice, it has to cost you something, cost you money, cost you time, maybe even perhaps cost you your reputation if that's what God is telling you to sacrifice in the moment. If you think about the scripture from beginning to end, the theme of sacrifice is always there. We can't say that Jesus came and sacrificed himself as if that had no value. For something to be a sacrifice, it has to cost. And I would say for it to be a sacrifice, it has to hurt. So, oh, this is controversial. This is very controversial.
Jason Dixon [00:15:54]:
I love controversy. That means it's usually right.
Jason Caine [00:15:56]:
I don't know that this passage shows David sacrificing. We're not told that he gave up everything. We're not told that he wasn't able to get one more Netflix subscription off of all this. This man clearly had plenty of money.
Jason Dixon [00:16:12]:
He did okay.
Jason Caine [00:16:12]:
I could be wrong, Deena.
Dena Davidson [00:16:13]:
And he said, he's at the end of his journey.
Jason Caine [00:16:15]:
I could be wrong. Come tell us next week. I don't know if that is a sacrifice for David. Now, I will say—
Dena Davidson [00:16:20]:
So what are you preaching from this weekend?
Jason Caine [00:16:22]:
No, I would say that the people who are there in that passage perhaps are sacrificing. How would we know whether or not this was a sacrifice? We don't know. Did it stop him from getting another camel?
Jason Dixon [00:16:36]:
Well, I'll tell you something that he probably— it looks like he laid on the altar was is pride. It does look like he said, you know what? It's not. I do have it because we have tons of people when it comes to sacrifice, they have so much money, they can give so much, but something that's in them, I wrote this down, that sacrificial giving always rearranges something. And what is that something? What's that one thing? It's kind of like the rich young ruler. What's the thing that was holding onto him? He couldn't give that up. Jesus could have said anything else, but that was the one thing. So I wonder maybe if it was that.
Jason Caine [00:17:11]:
Well, I think clearly then, before y'all turn the podcast off because I'm mad at parents with playing ball and saying David didn't sacrifice.
Jason Dixon [00:17:20]:
How's the Dukes doing?
Jason Caine [00:17:20]:
You can be generous and not sacrificial. We should note that there is a vast difference between being generous and being sacrificial. It's got to hurt. There are plenty of people who are extremely generous. I'm sure Jeff Bezos, extremely generous man, and gives away money because it makes sense for him to do it. But is that a sacrifice? So that's the only point that I'm making. Sacrifice is going to hurt.
Jason Dixon [00:17:40]:
It's like, do you take a double take?
Jason Caine [00:17:43]:
Yeah.
Jason Dixon [00:17:43]:
You don't just go, oh, here. It's like, ooh. So when we ask people to pray, it's because we really want you to pause. We really want you to ask God, I don't need to search me. I know me. I know my bank account. I know my vault. All of those things.
Jason Dixon [00:17:58]:
God, you search me because you really know what's going to have that hurt. Like you said, it does cost something.
Dena Davidson [00:18:05]:
Yeah, that actually, I think, works perfectly too with Jesus's story of the widow's mite. 1,000%. So it's like, hey, all these people giving their, you know, gifts, and Jesus said the widow who put in her last mite, she gave more than all of these other people. And so I think that that is one of those things that God approves of a sacrifice. 1,000%. Yeah, it is costly to us because The more it costs, the more it has an opportunity to be like surgery for our soul. It's cutting out the things that should not be there and reorienting our hearts towards the eternal, not the temporal.
Jason Caine [00:18:40]:
Yeah.
Jason Dixon [00:18:40]:
And I like you even said cutting out something, because when that happens, there's a regrowth. There's a regrowth of new you. The bad part is gone, and now that new part of you is growing. So I think that was powerful.
Dena Davidson [00:18:53]:
I am with you. I'm with you, Jason, on saying, actually, we have no idea if this is a financial sacrifice. But I think there is something to what Jason is saying about the sacrifice of pride, because there are so many passages where David's pride gets in the way, right? Like, he's like, "Strap on your armor, man." And Abigail's like, "No." There's so many stories where it's like, "All right, this guy's pride got him." And this is a moment where God said no to him, which if you can imagine being David and being like, "Do you remember Saul, God?" Do you remember Judges? Do you remember all these fools in the Old Testament? Or he didn't have a Testament then. All these fools in your people, and I have loved you. I have worshiped you. I have stayed faithful to you. You know, some moments, but yeah, murdered someone. But for the most part, I repented.
Dena Davidson [00:19:44]:
He's like, I mean, compared, I do think there was, I think a typical story would be, all right, well then, "you do it. If I'm not your guy, then you do it." "Go ahead, big dog. You got it." He could have had this drift into, "All right, I guess it's not my chapter anymore. I'm just going to enjoy my life." And I'm not in that season yet, but I do find it a huge part of the American story of we want to drift into our good years. We did all the hard work so that we can end our life just really happy and really enjoying life.. And I think David made a conscious choice. I'm not going to do that. My life has been one of sacrifice to the Lord, sacrifice of not killing the person who's trying to kill me, sacrifice of staying faithful to God.
Jason Caine [00:20:36]:
And I'm just going to keep doing it. Yeah. I love that David is like a good picture of running through the tape. He's running through the finish line as he gets toward the end of his life. And I love that also you see in this passage that he's setting up the next generation. He's like, my son is young, he's inexperienced. How do I set him up? Solomon's son, he's like, thanks. Yeah, exactly.
Jason Caine [00:20:55]:
How do I set him up so that he can succeed? And I've seen leaders do this in wonderful ways. We got a pastor here, Steve Bond, at our Santa Rosa campus. He's in his 70s and he just got hired within the past 9 months to be the lead pastor of this campus. And initially when we hired him, 'cause he was living in Costa Rica, he was a pastor there too. I'm like, man, spend the rest of your days in Costa Rica. Why do you want to come and pastor people? It's nice down there. —But Steve is going to run through the tape. And that's what I want to do.
Jason Caine [00:21:19]:
I want to run through the tape. I want to hand something off to the next generation. That's the way that you build legacy. And that's the way that things outlive you. This temple that David built, the place where it was built is still there. Some of the walls have turned into rubble. But this is 2,000 years later plus, and it's still there, which is remarkable. Yeah.
Jason Dixon [00:21:38]:
And I think something in that, when it comes to legacy and what David was feeling. And he understood, I wrote this down, that joy is the receipt of obedience. And so God was calling David to do this, but the cool thing behind it was like, and guess what? Your son's going to do it. Coming from a dad, oh my goodness, that would be amazing. I tell my kids all the time, I want you to be way, but you have a head start and I want you to keep going. If I knew that, again, it doesn't make it easier to push down pride, But it's just that reward God is like, "Hey, here is your joy. Look, it's not going to be you, but it's going to kind of be you through your son, through Solomon." So I thought that was pretty neat. Yeah.
Jason Caine [00:22:20]:
All right.
Dena Davidson [00:22:21]:
I got a controversial question.
Jason Caine [00:22:23]:
I feel like—
Dena Davidson [00:22:24]:
You know all about this. I feel like Jason and I, in sermon prep, we've shared we're kind of on the opposite ends of this spectrum. I feel like I'm more like an ascetic, like, "Oh, wealth is bad." This is just my drive. I understand it's not biblical, but When I first came to Bayside, I was like, "I don't know if a church should have a coffee shop. Like, I'm not sure that's biblical." Like, I only have a file for people living like John the Baptist style, very poorly. All wealth is evil, right? It's corrupting. And then I think you sit on the other end of like, "Hey, wealth is a tool in God's hands." So I think yours is more biblical than what I tend to be. Help me understand 1 Chronicles as a correction, and any scriptures you want to wrap in, as a correction to that idea that all wealth is evil and you should just distrust anyone with wealth?
Jason Caine [00:23:16]:
Right. I mean, I think I'll say a couple things. This passage clearly demonstrates that you can be a person who's faithful to God and accumulate a lot of wealth. I think the question you have to ask yourself is, one, in my pursuit to accumulate wealth, Am I still keeping my focus on God? And two, with the wealth that I'm accumulating, what am I doing with it to advance the kingdom of God? So I think God— there are people who are in the kingdom. I wrote this down earlier. There are some people who are in ministry and there are other people who fuel ministry. And in order for us to do ministry, it takes money. Those missionaries who are out in the field right now have had to raise funds from people who are working in making, accumulating wealth and giving it to them so that the gospel can continue to advance.
Jason Caine [00:24:04]:
So if everyone in the kingdom of God, if everybody only had one mite, God would still work. Don't get me wrong. But it does take money to fuel ministry for things to happen. Also, it's also pointed out that in the gospels, the people who Jesus assembled on his team, he had some tax collectors and these guys weren't broke. Nope. As a matter of fact, they probably had a lot of money. They made, well, I'm not going to say that. They accumulated a lot of money.
Jason Caine [00:24:31]:
And I think it just proves that we shouldn't feel guilty for the wealth that we have. I mean, we live in the United States of America. We're some of the wealthiest people to ever live in the world if you look at the grand scheme of the world. But what we do with what God has given us demonstrates what our heart is much more than if I just have money in the bank or if I don't. Absolutely.
Jason Dixon [00:24:51]:
Even look at one of the blessings for Solomon, you're going to be super wise. Guess what? And wealthy. I mean, it's amazing to see when God sees the heart behind us and everything's— I remember a friend of mine early on in campus ministry, some students were reading a book and it was kind of about that idea of we should just— John the Baptist said sell everything, all of us, we should live. And all of that has a great heart behind it. But I remember what my mentor Clay said was that, You don't get to define what being a disciple of Jesus is for someone else, because that doesn't mean that's what that is for you. It looks different for everyone. God gets to define what it looks like for us to follow him. We have kind of a rest of it.
Jason Dixon [00:25:38]:
Hey, we got to love others and be willing to sacrifice, willing to surrender. But however, it looks different for everyone. In some people's lives, it is extreme wealth that you've been blessed with. And then God's like, Now let's use that in some powerful ways. Yeah.
Dena Davidson [00:25:51]:
Yeah. I think also two things. One's a practical and one's a scriptural. Everyone has a different call, and you get all sorts of messed up when you start comparing your call to other people's call. So like the rich young ruler where Jesus said, go sell it. You lack one thing. Go sell everything and give to the poor. And that's where I get my theology, right? That's what Jesus really wants of all of us who have money is to sell everything.
Dena Davidson [00:26:12]:
That was his call. Right? And it could be that my call is, my specific task, my part in the body that God has asked me to play is to live like a simpler lifestyle. That's how I'm bent. But also on a practical note, wealth is for the getting. Like someone in the world will have wealth. I would love for that to be godly, biblical, Christian. A disciple of Jesus. A disciple of Jesus who have surrendered their hearts and mind and are using their wealth to leverage it into the kingdom.
Dena Davidson [00:26:46]:
'Cause wealth will be gotten. It will happen. And so I want it to be in the hands of believers who will use it for good.
Jason Caine [00:26:52]:
And I love that y'all both are emphasizing something that I try to help people see is we are all called to follow Jesus, right? To live like Jesus, to do the things that Jesus did. How that calling plays out is different for different people. In the New Testament, you have, is it Lydia who was the dealer in purple? This woman was paid. And because she had money, she was able to do certain things for the kingdom of God. Then you have John the Baptist. This man, when I think of the weirdest person ever in the world, John the Baptist comes. Weird diet.
Jason Dixon [00:27:24]:
Let's focus.
Jason Caine [00:27:24]:
Weird. But that's what he was called to do. And I think in our world today, like, you hear churches talking about other churches. I think even churches have different ways of doing ministry, and that's fine. Different people, different strategies. It's okay. We're all part of the body, and we all need one another. If your whole body was a toe, first of all, you'd be ugly, but you couldn't talk, you couldn't walk, you couldn't do anything.
Jason Caine [00:27:46]:
You have different parts of the body for a purpose. And so we should let people lean into their God-given giftedness as they move forward in the kingdom. Now, don't hear me saying people can just sin or ignore it. Like, I'm not a person that's supposed to sacrifice. Nah, if you're a kingdom person, sacrifice is what you do. That's part of it. 100%.
Dena Davidson [00:28:03]:
All right, I think it's a good moment to turn into application. So lots of good biblical exegesis and thinking about what this passage says. What's one simple way we can apply this passage?
Jason Caine [00:28:15]:
I would say the most— the best thing that you can do for your spiritual life is to pray and ask God, what is he asking you to sacrifice? And let God reveal that to you. And then go on a journey of actually sacrificing what God revealed to you that you're supposed to sacrifice and watch what the results are. I mean, there are so many different times in my life where I felt God was calling me to sacrifice something. One of those sacrifices, I had a dream I was gonna live in Atlanta, Georgia, the rest of my life. I was never gonna move, be there with my family, raise my kids there. Then I got an opportunity to come here to Bayside, and I'm like, "Oh, I don't wanna do that." Matter of fact, I said no the first time that they asked. But over time, God worked on my heart, and I'm like, "Man, maybe the thing I need to sacrifice is the dream I had for my own life today." to be in this location. And so I said yes to what God was calling me to, moved out here 7, almost 8 years ago.
Jason Caine [00:29:10]:
And if I never would've prayed and asked God if this was something I could sacrifice, I wouldn't be experiencing the life that I'm experiencing now. I wouldn't be involved in ministry the way that I am. And so God knows best. So pray and ask God, man, what is it that you're calling me to sacrifice? And whatever he tells you to do, do it. And then you're about to be on a journey of faith that you could never imagine.
Jason Dixon [00:29:28]:
And then Dina would've never been on the podcast with two Georgia boys.
Jason Caine [00:29:31]:
Never. Come on.
Dena Davidson [00:29:32]:
Right. I messed up you guys' names once.
Jason Dixon [00:29:34]:
I feel very proud. For me, it's the concept, and we briefly hit on it earlier, the idea of we don't give to God, we give back to God. The idea of living a life. What if you really lived your life with your hands open, knowing that it's already not yours? It's understanding that generosity is flowing out of what God is calling us to do, but then understanding this is all yours anyway. And so let's just make this easier on myself. This is all of yours anyway. And that is everything that you have. I remember even talking with Shaolin the first time she was pregnant.
Jason Dixon [00:30:11]:
That's his wife, by the way. That's my wife, Shaolin. When she was pregnant with Micah, that idea of Micah is God's. He is not ours. He's entrusted to us, but he is not ours. So just that idea of surrender. And I think when we read this passage that the idea of surrender, that application to your life is if you can really nail down into that, it just takes you a long way.
Dena Davidson [00:30:38]:
So good. My application is that sacrifice is always costly. Sometimes, I would say most of the time, honestly, all the sacrifice, all the cost actually is in the front end. Where we're reckoning with our fear, 'cause God is so faithful. I mean, honestly, story after story, I could tell you of God meeting people in that cost and the things they were afraid of God showing up. But there is a reckoning, there is a cost that needs to be paid beforehand. And so my application is to have the real conversation with God. What am I afraid of? What does this sacrifice, what in this cost am I afraid of losing, experiencing, not experiencing, have the full conversation, and then end it with saying, "All right, I surrender that to you." Yeah, that's great.
Jason Caine [00:31:26]:
Awesome.
Dena Davidson [00:31:26]:
I love that. All right. Well, next week we will be talking about not without everyone. And we can't wait because we need you. Haha, pun. But honestly, there's a big idea missing in the church, and that is that every single person has a part to play. Especially at a church like Bayside, you can get lost in how many people there are and say, "Yeah, someone else will do it." But no, please tune in to next week of the Bible Study Podcast, 'cause you have a role to play in the body of Christ, and we are excited to examine the scriptures that call us to just that. So like this episode, share it with someone that you think it will be helpful, subscribe, and we'll see you next week.